Skip to main content

Practical Tips for Using Perplexity

Prompting tips, best-practices and use-case examples from the Perplexity team.

Sarah avatar
Written by Sarah
Updated over 2 months ago

Perplexity is your go-to tool for streamlining your information-gathering process. Whether you're seeking quick answers, conducting in-depth research, or looking for creative inspiration, Perplexity works as your personal Swiss-Army-Knife.

Key Features

Answer any question

Perplexity delivers up-to-date answers by searching the live web in real time, ensuring you always get the latest information. It excels at handling any question—from straightforward ones like “What are the best coffee shops in Paris?” to complex topics such as “How does climate change affect polar bears?” or open-ended queries. Each answer is clearly sourced with links, so you can verify information or explore topics further with confidence

Summarize articles and webpages

Perplexity can provide instant summaries of articles, documents or webpages, sharing the information most relevant to your search. It’s perfect for quickly understanding the key points of lengthy documents or getting a concise overview of complex topics.

Use Cases

Professional

You can use Perplexity in any professional scenario. Here are just a few examples:

  • Education: Enhance lesson plans, create personalized learning experiences, and stay updated with the latest trends in education.

  • Product management: Get quick answers to product-related queries, including best practices for development, user research, and market analysis.

  • Financial analysis: Get summaries of financial reports, market forecasts, and investment strategies. For even more advanced and in-depth analysis try Perplexity Finance.

Creative

Perplexity can also assist with creative tasks.

  • Copywriting or Marketing: Real-time search ensures your copy reflects what’s current, helping you identify unique selling points and emerging customer needs. Perplexity can also help you with creating marketing hooks, SEO optimization, and fact-checking.

  • Scripts: Writing a play or video script? Perplexity can generate dialogue and scenes.

  • Emails and letters: User Perplexity to draft professional emails or personal letters at the speed of light

Prompting tips and examples

A prompt is the starting point for each of your conversations—or Threads—with Perplexity.Writing a clear and effective prompt is key to getting accurate and relevant information.

To get the best answers, make sure your prompt includes these elements:

  • Instruction: Clearly say what you want Perplexity to do.

  • Context: Give some background information to help Perplexity understand the task.

  • Input: Include any specific data or text Perplexity needs to answer your query.

  • Keywords: Use key terms that will help Perplexity focus on the most relevant details.

  • Output format: Explain how you want the response to be formatted.

  • Types of prompts:

    • Informational prompts: When you need specific information or facts. For Example: “What is a solar eclipse?"

    • Instructional prompts: When you need step-by-step instructions for completing a task. For example: "How can I remove a red wine stain from a white cotton shirt?"

    • Interactive prompts: When you want a conversational approach. For example: "Pretend you’re a hiring manager at a software company, and I’m interviewing for a job in quality assurance."

For the best results with Perplexity, start with a clear goal, use straightforward language, and provide enough background so the task is understood. Test and tweak your prompts as needed, and avoid common pitfalls like being vague, asking for too much at once, or leaving out important context.

A few more prompt examples

Legal compliance

I run an online store and need you to provide a list of regulations affecting e-commerce businesses in Europe. Focus on data protection, consumer rights, and tax obligations.

Essay help for students

I'm a student aiming to excel in my psychology paper and need you to provide an essay outline on the effects of social media on mental health. Focus on areas such as anxiety, depression, and self-esteem, and include key studies and statistics.

Healthy meal planning

Please create a 7-day gluten-free meal plan under 2,000 calories per day, with balanced nutrition, high protein, varied fruits and vegetables, specific recipes for all meals and snacks, and a weekly shopping list.

Did this answer your question?